Intensive care units to battle sting menace

KHWAJA JAMAL IN MUZAFFARPUR

The government will this year set up two intensive care units for children suffering from acute encephalitis syndrome at Shri Krishna Medical College and Hospital.

The cases come trickling in around May-June, so the health department has directed officials concerned to set up the facility within the next couple of months. Both intensive care units (ICUs) would have 30 beds each.

These ICUs would have a pathology lab of their own where blood samples of children with symptoms of acute encephalitis syndrome would be checked. A specialised pool of doctors would also attend to the patients.

Experts at the National Centre for Disease Control, New Delhi, and National Institute of Virology, Pune, have also stressed the need to keep children suffering from symptoms of acute encephalitis syndrome in separate ICU wards in adherence with the line of protocol for treatment.

The superintendent of Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital, G.K. Thakur, said the creation of the 60 beds among the two ICUs would serve the purpose well.

He told The Telegraph: “The government has initiated steps to set up the special ICUs. The State Health Society, Bihar, has also approved the proposal.”

The ICUs would be constructed on the hospital’s third floor.

Following the directive of health department principal secretary Deepak Kumar, the managing director of Bihar Medical Services Infrastructure Corporation Ltd, Praveen Kishore, visited the hospital on Sunday and expedited efforts to prepare the detailed project report for the ICUs.